Friday, 25 May 2012

I have worked and played with a lot of different
animals and they all fascinate me but none more than the horse.The big question is how they think about
things and how they make decisions about what they are going to do. When I was young my parents and teachers told
me that animals only did things by instinct and that they were incapable of any
kind of thought process.I no longer
believe that.Here a few little stories
about my experiences with our horses.

Two years ago we had a load of gravel delivered into
our paddock to build up the area in and around our run in barn.I had to move it using a wheel barrow because
of the confined areas.The horses were
in the paddock when I started this.After moving three wheel barrow loads, my horse Kai came up beside me
while I was loading and he started to paw down the gravel from the top of the
pile.I stroked him and told him he was
a good boy.After that he helped me with
every load.Last year we had a load of
screenings delivered for our round pen in our lower paddock.As soon as we let the horses in that paddock
he found the pile and started to level it.The picture is in my last blog.

Val`s horse, Bob, has a different talent.One day while grooming him Val dropped her
glove.Bob picked it up and held it in
his mouth until Val accepted it from him and rewarded him.She has turned this into a little game with
him by dropping different items which he retrieves and gives them back to
her.One day she took Bob into the round
pen to do some liberty exercises.She
dropped the halter and lead rope in the centre of the pen and proceeded with
the exercises.After 15 minutes she
asked him to disengage and come to her on the far side of the pen.Bob came to the centre of the pen and picked
up the halter and waited for her to come get it.It was pretty clear he was letting her know
he had had enough and wanted her to put his halter on and take him out to do
something else.

Last week Val was doing some clean up in the paddock.She was going around and picking up small
rocks that had surfaced since the spring.We try to clean these up to avoid having the horses bruise their
feet.She had picked up several stones
when she noticed Bob was about 50 feet away with his nose to the ground and
snuffling around something.She went
over to see what he was doing and found he had uncovered a base ball size rock
that had been partially covered with ground.Val picked it up, thanked him, and he went back to the hay feeder.

These are just a couple of little things that we
have noticed our horses do, that seem to show a thought process that goes
beyond instinct or simple rote learning.I certainly don`t believe it is just coincidence.

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

It is often said that horses live in the
present.This is true.However horses also have the best memory of
all domestic animals.

The way your horse responds to something today won`t
necessarily be the way he/she responded yesterday.

Our horse, Bob, has always been very easy to trailer
load.Yesterday he did not want to get
on the trailer.We have learned that
everything means something and nothing means nothing.We found that the door to the upper storage
area at the front of the trailer had been left open.So Bob could see this nice big cave that was
a perfect hiding place for a cougar or even the notorious and deadly sabre
toothed butterfly.There was no way he
was going near that scary place.We closed
the door and led him on the trailer.The
lead on was important because he trusts us and as long as we were leading he
was okay with following.We let him stay
on the trailer and we stayed with him while he carefully checked everything
out.We took him off and did some
groundexercises and then repeated the
lead on and rest.We did this several
times over the next hour.By the end of
it he was okay with getting on the trailer.

What happens tomorrow?I don`t know.I hope all will be okay, but, if he has an issue we will respect it and
help him through it.There is no doubt
that he will remember the scary moment yesterday but he will also remember that
nothing bad happened.No matter what
keep the horse`s trust and maintain your leadership.

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About Me

I became interested in horses a bit late in life and I am trying to make up for lost time in learning as much as I can from and about them.
This blog is about understanding the nature of the horese and through this knowledge to find better ways to communicate with and become partners with horses.
Val and I got out first horse just over 6years ago. Our plan was to keep the horse at a boarding stable. Six months later we brought him home and added a second horse. Withing 2 years (bitten, kicked and thrown) we knew we need help. We found a portal and entered the world of `natural horsemanship`, and we are still on that journey. It started with Parelli, that led to Dr. Robert M. Miller. Since then we have found more and more pathways to explore.